BLU-RAY REVIEW

Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds Live At Radio City Music Hall

Featured In Issue 125, November 2007

Picture4.5
SoundNR
WSR Score4
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Sony Music
(Catalog Number):
13100
(MPAA Rating):
Not Rated
(Rating Reason):
(Retail Price):
$29.98
(Disc Type):
2 Discs, BD-25/BD-50
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
169
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
Not Indicated
(Theatrical Year):
2007
(Theatrical Release):
No
(Direct-To-Video Release):
Yes
(Disc Release Date):
04
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Sam Erickson & Fenton Williams
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby TrueHD 5.1, PCM 24/48 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

On April 22, 2007 Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds played to a sold-out crowd Live At Radio City Music Hall. If you weren't one of the lucky ones fortunate enough to hold a golden ticket—and even if you were—you can enjoy the concert now on Blu-ray Disc in all of its high-definition splendor. (Tricia Spears)

Special features on Disc Two include the 45-minute documentary So Damn Lucky and a four-minute photo montage.

The VC-1-encoded 1.78:1 Blu-ray Disc looks very good, with fairly well-captured details and natural-looking colors. Fine details are not captured quite as well as in the best releases, but with solid black levels and shadow delineation, the imagery can look quite dimensional. The source element is very clean and noise is never noticeable, even in the fields of solid color. (Danny Richelieu)

Three audio encodings are included on the disc, including two lossless varieties: 2.0-channel linear PCM (24-bit, 96 kHz) and 5.1-channel Dolby® TrueHD (also 24-bit, 96 kHz). The front stage is not very wide with either mix, and the 5.1-channel encoding does not have as seamless of a stage as the two-channel mix, sounding slightly disjunct. Fidelity is pure with both lossless encodings, with very good dynamic range. A reverb-like effect is given to the music and sent to the surround channels in the 5.1-channel mix, but it can be completely dominated and drowned out by the front channels, which are delivered at much higher levels than the surrounds. Crowd cheers are delivered better in the surround channels, creating a believable soundfield. As a result of the relative ineffectiveness of the surround channels and the somewhat less-developed front stage, the linear PCM encoding is preferred over the TrueHD version, but fidelity-wise both sound nearly identical and superb. The LFE channel is incorporated in the mix throughout the presentation and is fairly effective. The lossy Dolby Digital encoding sounds noticeably digitized when compared to the lossless encodings, with a loss of dynamics and a subtly harsh edginess. (Danny Richelieu)